Mark and Carol Meyer stand on the tiny lot next to their home at Haven and Adams avenues in Midland Beach. Mrs. Meyer maintained a garden on the site for more than 40 years. "I made it beautiful," she said. Staten Island Advance photos/Anthony DePrimo

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The builder of the controversial Port Richmond “skinny house” has taken ownership of an even smaller property in Midland Beach and clear-cut it, with no apparent future plans to build.

For more than 40 years, an undeveloped parcel of land at the corner of Adams and Haven avenues — next to Mark and Carol Meyer’s home in Midland Beach — was a blossoming, tree-lined garden.

“I had cancer, and it helped me to be in the garden,” Mrs. Meyer said.

The property is 15.5 feet wide by 75 feet long, according to city tax maps. It has changed hands at least four times, but because of its size, nothing was ever built there.

“For 42 years it was empty, and I used it,” Mrs. Meyer said. “People were throwing stuff all over, and I made it beautiful. And [the developer] just chopped everything down. I don’t know for what.”

The couple had inquired about purchasing the land in the past, but they were assured by the city Department of Buildings that nobody would ever want it because there isn’t much anyone could do with it, Meyer said.

After Cee-Jay Real Estate Development Corp. bought the land, the parcel was cleared of all foliage.

Years ago a lawyer even told Meyer purchasing the property would not be worth the additional tax burden.

“I think [the developer] wanted us to buy it,” Meyer said. “And we’re retired. I don’t have extra money to pay taxes and everything like that. I think this was spite work, and it’s a shame, because there were such old trees here and everything. It really enhanced the neighborhood.”

Meyer explained that the city often bundles up several properties to be auctioned to prospective developers, and each time this parcel was sold as part of a larger package of properties, it eventually was returned to the city.

But this time the land was purchased by Cee-Jay Real Estate Development Corp., of which Clifford Siegel is the president.

Last week, the new owner had the tiny parcel clear-cut, removing about 40 trees nearly 40 years old, which Mrs. Meyer had planted.

Now the Meyers look out on a muddy patch of land.

“What’s he building here?” Meyer asked. “I said to him, ‘When you develop, what are you going to put, a doll house on it?’ There’s no way you could build on this land.”

A man answered the Advance’s call to a number listed for Cee-Jay Real Estate Developers and said there are no current plans to do anything with the property.

“There’s no plans to build anything, zero,” said the man, who refused to identify himself. “There’s no intention at this juncture now, or any time in the immediate future. No plans have been filed. It’s just a nice clear lot.”

The Buildings department could not provide any additional information on the property.

But this particular developer has shown he can work in the confines of a tight space.

The Port Richmond “skinny house,” which will be 12 feet wide when built, is a Cee-Jay Real Estate project listed as 8 Orange Ave. The developer began building after winning a battle with the neighbors to stop the project on a lot measuring only 17 feet at its widest point, and longer than 75 feet.

Madeline Giambrone’s story rings a bell with Mrs. Meyer. 

Mrs. Giambrone has lived next to the Port Richmond property since 1950, and for all those years groomed the lush green lawn, and enjoyed the shade provided by a tree that was nearly the size of her home.

“I’m very, very upset over this,” she said.

The Giambrones had the opportunity to purchase the property years ago, when her husband was still alive, but because of its small size the couple decided against it, believing nothing reasonable could ever be built there.

“I used to keep [the property] so pretty,” Mrs. Giambrone said. “I feel so bad about this. You have no idea. But I can’t fight Borough Hall. And they made it so small and close to my house.

“Look at how narrow [the foundation] is, it’s like a swimming pool.” 